One of the most dangerous situations confronting a law enforcement person or officer in the officer's daily job is a vehicle or traffic stop. Vehicle stops conducted by law enforcement persons often take place in the dark of night and/or on an isolated road. During the vehicle stop, the officer must pull over a vehicle, such as an automobile, truck, or motorcycle, for reasons related to a violation of a law, to a suspicious act, or to a random vehicle stop.
Vehicle or traffic stops are performed thousands of times per year. In a 1999 Department of Justice study, it was reported that about 19,300,000 stops were performed throughout the United States. In many of these stops, a law enforcement person or officer approaches a stopped vehicle without knowing the identity of the driver or how many passengers are in the stopped vehicle. These situations are very dangerous for a law enforcement person performing his or her duty. Many of these stops have resulted in law enforcement persons being injured, shot, or killed and the assailants disappearing without leaving a clue as to the identity of the assailants.
Other hazards associated with vehicle stops include dangerous weather and road conditions. These conditions can be further complicated by vehicles traveling at high speeds in total darkness near the scene. These dangerous situations frequently arise during the course of a vehicle stop. Generally during a vehicle stop, a law enforcement person or officer leaves the safety of his vehicle to gather information about the driver and any passenger(s) of the stopped vehicle, ask questions, provide information, and assess the situation.
One of the first tactical steps a law enforcement person or officer will take when a vehicle is stopped is to align his vehicle slightly to the left behind the stopped vehicle in a manner such to provide protection for him and/or his partner when one or both of the officers are getting out of the law enforcement vehicle. This position creates a barrier or protected path that will also be used as one or both of the officers are positioned in front of the law enforcement vehicle's window.
It is not always possible for a law enforcement vehicle to establish a protected path because of road width, terrain, or situations that do not allow for the preferred method of alignment to the stopped vehicle. The law enforcement person or officer must then leave the safety of his vehicle to gather the required information associated with the cause of the stop. At this point, the law enforcement person is in the most vulnerable situation because he is outside the safety of his vehicle. Beyond the problem associated with the unknown driver is the problem associated with weather. Inclement weather creates a situation of poor visibility and places a law enforcement person in harms way of passing vehicles.
Some measures and approaches have been taken to minimize and assist in reducing the probability of injury or death to law enforcement persons or officers during vehicle or traffic stops, yet these measures still place law enforcement persons in harms way by requiring them to leave the safety of their vehicles. Some proposed and/or current safety measures and approaches include: handheld investigative devices, such as fingerprint readers or scanners or facial recognition scanners, RFID readers, RFID tags, and licenses with embedded information. These technologies help law enforcement persons or officers with preliminary identification. Yet, they all place law enforcement officers in harms way at some point in the investigative process because of the close proximity that is required for identification. That is, the officers must verify personal assigned or vehicle-related items, such as driver's licenses, identification cards, vehicle registration cards, and vehicle insurance documentation, which the drivers and passengers may possess.
Another problem that is not addressed by the above-mentioned measures and approaches is the inability to perform a visual look or search of the inside of the stopped vehicle for a person hiding and/or concealing a weapon.
Another frightening situation that confronts parking attendants or other types of law enforcement persons, such as military personnel or security guards, occurs when a vehicle stops at a check point location or structure, such as a security booth, a parking garage booth, or a kiosk. In these types of situations, at least one attendant or law enforcement person is placed in harm's way because the attendant or law enforcement person is generally only a very short distance away from the stopped vehicle. Thus, the driver and any passenger(s) and/or harmful weapons or cargo can pose great danger to the attendant or law enforcement person.